U.CSB   LIBRARY 


THE  TEACHER 


A  COMMEMORATIVE  SERMON 


PREACHED   IN  THE   SECOND  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH  OF 
EXETER,  N,  H,, 


BY 


JOHN  H.  MORISON. 


BOSTON : 

PRESS    OF    GEORGE    H.    ELLIS. 

1879. 


THE  TEACHER. 


ISAIAH  \iv.,  13.— Aud  all  thy  children  shall  be  taught  of  the  Lord ;  and  great  shall 
be  the  peace  of  thy  children. 

God  is  our  great  Teacher.  In  calling  out  the  faculties 
with  which  he  has  endowed  us  through  the  instincts  and 
longings  which  he  has  implanted  within  us,  in  the  adapta- 
tion of  the  outward  universe  to  the  soul  of  man,  in  the 
varied  experiences  and  discipline  of  life,  in  the  order  of 
society  and  the  influence  of  its  members  one  upon  another, 
by  his  revelations  of  divine  truth  and  in  the  direct  influ- 
ences of  his  spirit,  he  is  teaching  us  from  the  first  opening  of 
our  eyes  till  they  are  closed  in  death.  The  world  is  one 
vast  school,  and  he  is  our  teacher, —  directly  and  through 
the  ten  thousand  agents  employed  by  him  to  train  and  edu- 
cate his  children. 

The  first  condition  of  success,  therefore,  in  any  school  of 
ours  must  be  found  in  its  conformity  to  the  divine  method. 
The  best  teacher  is  the  man  whose  teachings  are  most  entirely 
in  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  God,  adapting  themselves 
most  entirely  to  the  laws  of  development  in  the  human 
mind.  Boys  untrained,  undisciplined,  unconscious  of  their 
own  powers,  often  with  very  confused  and  imperfect  ideas 
of  right  and  wrong,  come  into  a  great  school,  not  merely  to 
learn  a  little  of  this  and  a  little  of  that,  so  as  to  lay  it  up  for 
future  use,  but  to  be  taught  in  such  a  way  that  their  whole 


4  The  Teacher. 

natures,  moral,  intellectual,  and  religious,  may  be  quickened 
into  activity.  He  who  best  helps  them  in  this  process  of 
transformation  is  the  ablest  and  best  teacher.  He  awakens 
in  them  the  love  of  knowledge,  and  teaches  them  how  to 
study.  He  helps  to  throw  around  them  an  atmosphere  of 
manliness  and  gentleness,  of  moral  purity,  of  social  refine- 
ment, and  of  spiritual  aspiration,  so  as  to  call  out  what  is 
best  within  them,  and  to  bring  them  into  sympathy  with  the 
laws  and  the  spirit  of  God.  He  who  does  this  work  on  a 
large  scale  faithfully  and  wisely  may  be  numbered  among 
the  distinguished  benefactors  of  his  race. 

I  think  that  our  English  ancestors,  and  their  successors 
in  this  country  also,  were  slow  to  recognize  what  ought 
to  be  the  leading  purpose  of  education.  In  the  Gospels,  the 
word  didashalos  (teacher)  occurs  forty-eight  times,  and  yet 
in  our  English  version  we  find  it  rendered  by  the  word 
teacher  only  twice,  and  by  the  word  master  forty-six  times. 
When  Dr.  Johnson  was  asked  how  he  came  to  have  so  exact 
a  knowledge  of  Latin,  he  said,  "  My  master  whipped  me  very 
well.  Without  that  I  should  have  done  nothing."  While 
this  master  was  flogging  his  boj's  unmercifully,  he  used  to 
sa}^  "  And  this  I  do  to  save  you  from  the  gallows."  The 
idea  seems  to  have  been  that  education  —  contrary  to  its 
literal  meaning  —  did  not  consist  in  drawing  out  the  boy's 
faculties,  but  in  whipping  knowledge  into  him  and  whipping 
the  devil  out  of  him,  a  twofold  process  more  exciting  than 
agreeable  or  salutary  to  the  parties  concerned.  This  idea 
and  the  practice  resulting  from  it  found  their  way  into  most 
of  our  classical  schools,  and  vitiated  in  no  small  degree  their 
methods  and  their  teachings.  It  may  well,  be  a  matter  of 
devout  thankfulness  to  all  who  have  enjoyed  its  benefits, 
that  the  Phillips  Exeter  Academy  has  never  had  a  master. 


The  Teacher.  5 

This  is  something  more  than  a  verbal  peculiarity.  It  indi- 
cates the  character  of  the  school,  and  of  those  who  have 
made  it  what  it  is.  Nowhere  in  the  United  States,  so  far  as 
I  know,  is  there  a  great  classical  preparatory  school  in  which 
so  large  a  liberty  is  given  to  the  students.  But  where  there 
is  so  much  freedom  from  external  restraint,  there  must  be  a 
greater  moral  and  personal  influence;  and,  for  more  than 
ninety  years,  that  higher  influence  has  not  been  wanting. 

What  are  the  qualities  which  best  fit  a  man  to  be  at  the 
head  of  such  an  institution  ? 

Dr.  Arnold,  in  seeking  for  a  teacher,  said,  "  What  I  want 
is  a  Christian  and  a  gentleman,  and  one  who  has  common- 
sense  and  understands  boys."  "  Activity  of  mind,"  also  he 
emphasizes. 

Activity  of  mind,  more  than  learning,  is  an  essential 
quality.  There  is  so  much  of  routine  in  a  school,  and  the 
lessons,  taken  by  themselves,  cover  so  small  a  space  in  the 
world  of  inquiry,  that  there  is  always  danger  lest  the  teacher 
should  be  too  easily  satisfied  with  himself,  and  become  indo- 
lent, and  thus  degenerate  into  something  hardly  better  than 
a  machine.  But  in  any  profession,  when  a  man  ceases  to 
strive  after  new  attainments  and  to  grow  intellectually  he 
ceases  to  be  a  living  power.  Virtue,  no  longer  generated 
within  him,  ceases  to  go  out  from  him.  The  sceptre  falls 
from  his  hand.  His  work  becomes  tedious  to  himself  and  his 
pupils.  .He  must  be  as  wide-awake  as  a  general  in  the 
midst  of  a  campaign.  Any  one  who  has  visited  the  Hampton 
Institute  in  Virginia,  and  witnessed  the  celerity  and  never- 
ceasing  activity  with  which  Mr.  Armstrong  throws  himself 
into  everything,  as  a  motive  power  which  makes  itself  felt  in 
every  mind  there,  will  understand  the  supreme  importance 
of  activity  and  quickness  of  mind  in  the  head  of  a  great  edu- 
cational institution.     Delicacy  of  mental  and  moral  texture, 


6  The  Teacher. 

as  well  as,  constant  activity  and -alertness,  is  also  a  quality 
which  I  think  I  have  always  found  in  teachers  of  the  highest 
order.  Only  through  the  finest  qualities  in  themselves  can  ^ 
they  appreciate  and  encourage  the  finest  natures  which  th&y 
are  to  train  and  educate.  We  sometimes  forget  what  keen- 
ness of  intellect,  what  ready  sympathies,  what  sensitiveness 
of  personal  and  moral  feeling,  must  be  kept  in  constant 
exercise  by  the  teacher  who  would  have  the  best  influence 
over  his  pupils.  He  must  read  each  boy's  mind  and  charac- 
ter,—  a  more  difficult  and  far  more  important  task  than  to 
get  at  the  meaning  of  a  dijfficult  passage  in  ^schylus  or 
Thucydides ;  he  must  divine  what  is  in  him,  and  how  to 
bring  it  out.  And  this,  not  with  one  alone,  but  with  all,  by 
a  sort  of  omnipresence,  through  which  his  eye,  his  mind,  and 
his  personal  influence  are  felt  by  every  boy  under  his  charge. 
In  this  way  he  gives  a  character  to  the  school.  His  life 
enters  into  it.  His  spirit  pervades  it.  The  man  who  fills 
such  a  place  must  be  a  man  of  intelligence,  a  man  of  tact,  a 
man  of  inflexible  truthfulness,  and  with  a  nice  sense  of 
honor.  No  coarseness  or  meanness  should  enter  into  his 
composition.  His  refinement  of  taste  should  not  only  go 
with  him  in  his  studies,  but  characterize  the  man  in  his  per- 
sonal deportment  and  in  his  relations  with  others.  "  He 
should,"  as  Dr.  Arnold  says,  "study  'things  lovely  and  of 
good  report';  that  is,  he  should  be  jDublic  spirited,  liberal, 
and  entering  heartily  into  the  interest,  honor,  and  general 
respectability  and  distinction  of  the  society  which  he  has 
joined." 

Above  all,  he  is  to  carry  with  him  the  spirit  of  a  Christian 
gentleman.  He  ought  to  be  a  man  of  profound  religious 
convictions.  I  do  not  speak  of  speculative  theology  or 
specific  articles  of  faith.  And  that  I  think  the  founder  of 
this  school  understood,  when,  waiving  any  formal  examina- 


The  Teacher.  7 

tion,  he  placed  at  its  head  a  man  whose  doctrinal  opinions  he 
well  knew  did  not  accord  with  his  own.  What  we  want 
« is  a  man  whose  life  is  informed  and  inspired  by  the  thought 
and  the  feeling  of  God,  and  who  lives  in  an  atmosphere  per- 
vaded by  Christian  ideas  and  sentiments.  Such  a  man  lives 
in  a  presence  greater  than  his  own,  and  carries  it  with  him. 
He  may  not  talk  much  about  it.  But  the  sentiment  of  love 
and  reverence  for  God  and  sacred  things,  which  has  so  deep 
a  place  in  his  heart,  gives  its  coloring  to  his  speech  and  con- 
duct, and  invests  him  with  a  grace,  a  dignity,  an  authority, 
and  a  silent  influence  for  good  such  as  nothing  else  can 
give. 

Here  are  the  three  great  elements — intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  —  which  unite  in  the  making  up  of  the  man. 
No  one  of  them  stands  alone  or  obtrudes  itself  upon  ■  us, 
but  each  in  its  appropriate  place  is  joined  with  all  the  rest, 
and  all  combine  to  create  in  him  a  personality  which  charac- 
terizes whatever  he  says  or  does,  and  enables  him  to  speak 
and  to  act  quietly  and  gently,  but  "as  one  having  authority." 
Personal  influence  is  something  that  cannot  be  analyzed, 
and  yet  it  is  the  one  essential  thing  in  a  Christian  minister 
or  teacher.  As  with  animal  or  vegetable  life,  when  we  seek 
to  find  out  its  secret  it  eludes  us  and  escapes.  But  we  feel 
its  power.  We  see  how  it  attaches  itself  to  the  slightest 
word  or  act.  We  repeat  the  impressive  word  that  we  have 
heard,  but  the  subtle  fire  with  which  it  glowed  and  which  it 
kindled  in  us  is  gone.  They  who  heard  Daniel  Webster  at 
the  Abbot  Festival  in  Exeter,  forty  years  ago,  with  sup- 
pressed utterance  and  tears  which  he  could  not  suppress, 
speaking  of  his  obligations  to  his  teachers,  especially  to 
Joseph  Stevens  Buckminster,  will  remember  how  that  great- 
est personality  of  this  century  gave  to  a  few  simple  words  a 


8  The  Teacher. 

pathos  and  a  power  which  no  words  of  themselves  could  ever 
have. 

The  personal  influence  of  a  great  teacher  is  greater  than 
anything  that  he  says  or  does.  It  gives  that  a  meaning 
which  it  cannot  have  in  itself.  When  Dr.  Abbot  entered 
the  academy  yard,  or  lifted  his  hat,  as  he  did  to  every 
student  he  met,  it  was  as  if  the  benignant  spirit  of  a  Chris- 
tian gentleman  diffused  itself  visibly  around  him,  and  gently 
touched  the  boy's  mind  with  a  new  sense  of  personal  dignity 
and  kindness. 

Where  these  great  qualities  are,  there  smaller  things 
associated  with  them  partake  of  their  influence.  There 
culture  tells.  There  refinement  of  manners  tells.  There 
elegance  of  speech  tells  for  something  more  than  mere 
grammatical  correctness.  I  remember  a  young  man  of 
liberal  education  in  Exeter  more  than  fifty  years  ago  whose 
language  came  from  his  lips  with  such  sweetness  and  beauty 
that  it  seemed  to  me  a  symbol  of  his  own  spiritual  purity 
and  sweetness.  So  it  seemed  then,  and  so  it  seems  to  me 
now  whenever  I  think  of  him,  though  he  has  long  been 
"  numbered  among  the  saints  in  glory  everlasting." 

What  a  man  z's,  that,  to  some  degree  at  least,  he  imparts. 
Take  a  series  of  lessons  in  Latin  or  Greek,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  such  a  teacher  as  I  have  endeavored  to  describe. 
The  boy  gets  at  the  literal  meaning  of  a  passage  and  its 
grammatical  relations,  and  perhaps  understands  some  of  its 
allusions.  But  that  is  all.  Now  there  is  not  much  nutri- 
ment here  for  his  finer  and  nobler  faculties ;  and  there  are 
some  thorough  teachers  who  add  nothing  to  this  meagre  fare. 
Day  by  day  he  brings  to  them  his  little  budget  of  newly 
acquired  knowledge,  and  day  by  day  he  goes  away  none  the 
better  for  what  he  gets  from  them.  But,  instead  of  such  as 
they  are,  a  true  teacher  meets  him.     The  bare  contact  with 


The  Teacher.  9 

such  a  man  stimulates  his  faculties  and  helps  to  refine  his 
taste  and  his  manners.  Gradually  his  mind  opens  with  a 
keen  delight  to  see  nice  distinctions  of  meaning  and  hidden 
graces  of  speech.  Under  that  new  sun,  the  barren  sod  is 
covered  with  grass  and  violets.  New  and  touching  associa- 
tions spring  up  around  the  poet's  words.  We  who  are  his 
boys  hardly  know  how  it  is  done ;  but  by  some  mysterious 
processes  these  lessons  touch  a  new  chord  within  us,  call 
out  new  powers  of  appreciation,  and  bring  us  itito  more 
vital  and  sympathetic  relations  with  what  is  great  and  beau- 
tiful. And  so  the  most  perfect  works  of  pagan  genius 
may  help  to  prepare  us  for  the  highest  Christian  ideas. 
Even  Plato  has  given  some  notion  of  this  ascent  upwards. 
"The  true  order  of  going,"  he  says,  "is  to  use  the  beauties 
of  earth  as  steps  along  which  he  mounts  upwards  "  till  he 
reaches  the  absolute  beauty.  And  then  "  he  has  hold,  not  of 
an  image,  but  of  a  reality;  and  bringing  forth  and  educating 
true  virtue  "  he  learns  how  "to  become  the  friend  of  God 
and  be  immortal,  if  mortal  man  may."'  If  even  an  old  Greek 
philosopher  could  thus  find  in  earthly  beauty  steps  by  which 
to  rise  into  a  higher  worship  and  an  immortal  life,  how 
much  more  ma}'"  a  Christian  teacher  so  use  the  most  perfect 
productions  of  human  genius  as  to  call  out  the  deeper  facul- 
ties and  emotions  of  our  nature,  and  prepare  us  for  the  still 
higher  and  richer  precepts  of  the  Gospel ! 

When  I  was  in  the  gallery  of  the  Vatican  at  Rome,  which 
contains  the  most  beautiful  and  perfect  statues  in  the  world, 
a  lady  who  was  with  us  burst  into  tears,  being  entirely  over- 
come with  the  emotions  of  love  and  reverence  excited  in  her 
by  the  marvellous  beauty  around  her.  Another  friend  told 
me  that  under  similar  circumstances  he  felt  as  if  he  must 
throw  himself  upon  his  knees  and  worship.  So,  by  the  most 
perfect  examples  of  artistic  excellence  in  the  great  poets  of 


10  The  Teacher, 

Greece,,  or  in  Plato  or  Demosthenes,  where  the  loftiest  ideas 
and  examples  are  brought  before  us,  emotions  may  be 
awakened  which  carry  us  beyond  all  that  those  great  men 
knew,  and  prepare  us  to  appreciate  and  profit  by  the  richer, 
diviner  revelations  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  What  a  Chris- 
tian poet  has  said  of  the  Odyssey  is  not  confined  to  that :  — 

"  Great  tale  of  wisdom,  may  thy  choice  be  mine  ! 
The  lesson  in  thee  stored  is  half-divine  ; 
Sweetly  yet  sternly,  softly  yet  severe, 
Like  solemn  music  in  some  ancient  shrine, 
Insinuating  high  and  holy  fear, 
And  teaching  greater  things  than  reach  the  eye  or  ear." 

Something  of  this  I  used  to  feel  in  the  studies  which  I 
pursued  under  the  direction  and  inspiration  of  the  honored 
teacher  who  so  long  presided  over  the  academy  in  this  town, 
and  who  has  just  gone  to  his  reward.  Little  was  said.  The 
lessons  were  short.  But  by  some  means  or  other  an  interest 
was  excited  —  an  enthusiasm,  a  sense  of  something  greater 
than  the  words  before  us  —  such  as  I  never  experienced 
afterwards  in  the  more  advanced  walks  of  our  university 
studies. 

To  teach  a  little  Latin  or  a  litde  Greek  or  mathematics  is 
no  great  matter.  But  to  teach  them  in  such  a  way  as  to 
reach  the  inmost  life  of  a  boy,  to  awaken  in  him  a  generous 
and  noble  ambition  for  knowledge  and  virtue,  to  quicken  his 
love  of  truth  and  his  sense  of  duty,  to  infuse  a  Christian 
spirit  into  a  great  school,  and  open  to  the  young  visions  of 
intellectual  and  moral  advancement  which  find  their  end  in 
no  earthly  attainments  or  success,  but  lead  on  beyond  them 
all  to  the  Cross  as  the  truest  emblem  of  the  love  and  service 
which  they  owe  to  man  and  to  God, —  this  ie  a  great  work^ 
and  it  requires  a  man  of  very  rare  gifts  and  accomplishments, 
aided  by  the  grace  and  the  spirit  of  God,  to  do  it.  He  who 
fills  this  office  and  does  this  work,  not  for  a  single  class,  but 


The  Teacher.  11 

for  a  succession  of  classes,  and  continues  his  work  throufrh  a 
period  of  more  than  half  a  century,  should  hold  a  place  of 
honor  in  the  minds  of  those  who  care  for  the  highest  well- 
being  of  man  and  society. 

"But  this  ideal  picture,"  it  may  be  said,  "is  very  dis- 
couraging to  teachers."  So  is  the  Christian  religion  very 
discouraging.  But  in  the  loftiest  and  apparently  most  im- 
practicable of  its  precepts,  such  as,  "  Be  ye  perfect,  even  as 
your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect,"  there  is  an  inspiration 
which  stimulates  and  strengthens  us,  at  the  same  time  that 
it  subdues  and  humiliates  us  with  a  sense  of  our  insufficiency 
and  our  shortcomings.  "The  perfect,"  as  I  once  heard  Di. 
Channing  say,  "is  what  we  must  always  strive  after,  but 
never  expect  to  reach."  With  such  an  ideal,  there  is  hope 
and  encouragement  even  in  our  failures.  We  fall,  to  rise 
again.  This  was  the  feeling  of  St.  Paul  when  he  said, 
"Not  as  tlioagh  I  had  already  attained,  either  were  already 
perfect." 

I  have  been  drawing  very  slightly  au  outline  of  what  a 
teacher — the  head  of  a  great  school  —  should  be.  Two  men 
have  been  constantly  before  me, —  men  very  unlike  in  person 
and  in  natural  temperament,  yet  so  connected  in  my  mind 
with  the  best  instruction  that  I  ever  received,  and  associated 
together  through  so  many  years,  that  I  cannot  separate  them 
in  their  methods  or  their  influence.  Dr.  Abbot  gave  its 
peculiar  character  to  the  institution.*  Dr.  Soule  entered 
into  his  labors,  and  carried  on  the  work  which  his  teacher 
had  begun.     But  they  worked  together  so  long  and  so  har- 

*In  any  account  of  the  influences  which  have  formed  the  Academy  at  Exeter,  it 
would  be  unfair  not  to  refer  to  the  many  eminent  men  who  have  filled  there,  for  a 
longer  or  shorter  period,  the  subordinate  posts  of  instnietioa.  Among  tlir-m  we  tiud 
the  names  of  Daniel  Dana,  Abiel  Abbot,  Peter  ().  Thacher,  Nicholas  Emery,  Jo  eph  S. 
Buckmiuster,  Ashur  Ware,  Nathan  Hale,  Hosea  Hildreth,  Alexander  H.  Everett, 
Nathaniel  A.  Haven,  Jr.,  Nathan  Lord,  Henry  H.  Fuller,  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  James 
Walscer,  William  B.  O.  and  Oliver  W.  B.  Peabody,  Joseph  Hale  Abbot,  Francis 
Bowen,  Joseph  Gibson  Hoyt,  and  Paul  Ansel  Chadbourne,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
important  services  rendered  by  those  who  are  still  engaged  in  its  duties. 


12  The  Teacher. 

moniously,  each  making  and  adopting  suggestions  and 
throwing  his  own  life  into  the  work,  that  it  is  difficult  to  say 
where  one  dynasty  ended  and  the  other  began,  or  what  are 
to-day  the  essential  features  which  are  due  to  one  or  the 
other  of  these  distinguished  teachers,  as  it  is  hard  to  say  pre- 
cisely what  the  great  river  below  St.  Louis  owes  to  the 
Mississippi  and  what  to  the  Missouri. 

I  would  not  say  that  either  of  the  two  filled  out  entirely 
our  ideal  of  what  a  teacher  might  be.  No  man  does  that. 
The  most  faithful,  the  most  gifted  and  successful  life  is  more 
a  prophecy  than  a  fulfilment.  Dr.  Arnold  fell  painfully 
short  of  his  own  ideal.  But  most  of  what  I  have  said  applies 
to  these  two  men.  Dr.  Soule  was,  like  his  predecessor,  a 
Christian  gentleman.  He  had  an  active  mind.  Twenty 
years  after  he  began  to  teach  here,  he  took  up  the  Latin 
language,  as  if  it  were  a  new  study  to  be  carried  out  in  the 
light  contributed  by  the  higher  scholarship  of  the  day.  But 
especially  was  his  mind  active  in  reading  the  minds  of  those 
before  him  and  adapting  himself  to  them.  He  knew  what 
was  in  them  and  how  to  make  the  most  of  it.  There  was  a 
singular  fineness  of  texture  in  his  mental  organization.  He 
could  not  be  coarse  or  harsh  or  vulgar  without  doing  vio- 
lence to  himself.  He  was  a  man  of  erect  and  lofty  bearing. 
But  he  put  on  no  airs.  There  was  no  pride  in  all  this  lofti- 
ness, but  rather  a  "high  humility."  He  identified  himself 
with  his  office.  He  felt  its  weighty  and  solemn  responsibili- 
ties, and  the  dignity  of  deportment  which  it  demanded  of 
him.  Would  that  more  of  our  public  men  had  a  fitting 
sense  of  the  conduct  becoming  their  great  office  I  He  hon- 
ored his  high  calling.  The  teacher's  chair  was  his  throne. 
He  governed  without  effort.  The  school  had  become  a  law 
to  itself.  But  constant  vigilance  was  needed  to  keep  it  up 
to  its  own  standard.     Dangerous  infiuences  had  to  be  antici- 


The  Teacher.  13 

pated  and  quietly  removed  before  the  mischief  was  done. 
In  the  unfledged  and  undeveloped  specimens  of  humanity 
that  came  before  him  he  was  quick  to  see  their  capabilities, 
and  he  looked  upon  them  with  something  like  reverence. 
He  "loved  them  while  they  were  yet  unlovely."  For  in 
them  he  saw,  not  only  the  possible  law-makers,  judges, 
rulers,  the  great  merchants,  physicians,  divines,  who  were  to 
mould  the  coming  age,  but,  more  and  greater  than  all  this, 
he  saw  before  him  children  of  God  entrusted  to  him  that 
they  might  grow  up  to  be  a  joy  and  blessing  to  themselves 
and  to  all  around  them.  In  them,  with  his  prophetic  eye, 
he  saw  men  of  large  hearts,  of  well-trained  minds,  of  just 
views,  of  sterling  integrity, —  men  who,  in  the  breadth  and 
loftiness  of  their  attainments  and  the  severity  of  their  moral 
convictions,  would  one  day  sit  in  judgment  on  him  and  the 
work  which  he  was  doing. 

Here,  more  than  in  any  other  single  thing,  was  the  secret 
of  his  success.  He  believed  and  he  rejoiced  in  boys.  No 
eye  of  suspicion  was  needlessly  turned"  upon  them.  Because 
he  believed  in  them,  they  believed  in  him,  and  strove  not  to 
disappoint  him.  A  single  incident  will  illustrate  what  I 
mean.  Nearly  twenty  years  ago,  one  night  many  of  the 
gates  in  the  academy  village  disappeared.  It  was  not  an  act 
that  required  much  originality  or  wit.  But  boys  have  a 
keen  appetite  for  fun,  and  probably  they  got,  or  at  least 
expected  to  get,  some  enjoyment  out  of  it.  But  the  town's 
people  whose  gates  had  been  stolen  did  not  see  it  exactly  in 
that  light.  They  regarded  it  as  a  public  outrage,  and  were 
very  indignant.  Some  of  them  angrily  remonstrated  with 
Dr.  Soule,  and  insisted  upon  it  that  the  police  should  be 
.called  in,  and  summary  punishment  inflicted  on  the  culprits 
who  had  taken  part  in  this  high-handed  proceeding.  Dr. 
Soule  calmly  listened  to  them,  and  told  them  they  had  better 
wait. 


14  The  Teacher. 

That  evening,  after  prayers,  he  made  a  little  address  to 
the  students  on  the  conduct  which  a  nice  sense  of  honor 
requires  of  gentlemen  towards  those  whom  they  have 
injured.  Precisely  what  redress  should  be  made  must 
depend  on  the  relation  of  the  parties  to  one  another,  and  on 
other  circumstances.  He  instanced  the  case  of  a  friend  of 
his  who  had  spoken  harshly  to  his  man  for  bringing  his 
horse  to  the  door  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  the  time,  and 
who  afterwards  learned  that  it  was  not  the  man's  fault,  and 
therefore  made  him  a  small  present  of  mone}^  as  an  acknowl- 
edgment. But  from  one  gentleman  to  another  this  could  not 
be  done.  There  are  cases,  however,  he  said,  where  imme- 
diate and  entire  reparation  can  be  made.  His  object  was  to 
impress  them  with  the  idea  that  a  gentleman  owes  it  to  him- 
self to  repair  as  soon  as  possible  any  injury  that  he  has  done 
to  another.  He  then  dismissed  the  school,  and  was  himself 
detained  a  short  time  in  his  place.  When  he  went  out,  it 
was  raining  and  just  at  nightfall.  But  he  saw  in  the 
academy  yard  students  moving  in  little  groups,  each  with 
a  gate  on  his  shoulder ;  and  thus  every  gate  found  its  way 
back  to  the  place  where  it  had  belonged. 

He  believed  in  his  boys,  and  here,  as  elsewhere,  faith  is 
wonderfully  eifective.  In  this,  I  should  say,  has  been  the 
one  marked  feature  in  the  management  of  the  Exeter  Acad- 
emy. The  students  are  trusted.  Character  and  scholar- 
ship are  the  two  things  which  Dr.  Soule,  like  his  predecessor, 
valued  and  honored.  To  secure  and  advance  them  in  every 
student,  was  the  one  prayer  and  purpose  of  his  life.  Wealth, 
family,  political  or  social  distinction,  had  no  place  in  his 
heart  to  influence  him  in  the  treatment  of  Iws  boys.  The 
only  distinction  which  he  recognized  was  that  of  character- 
and  scholarship.  And  this  sentiment  became,  more  than  I 
have  ever  found  it  anywhere  else,  a  part  of  the  common  law 
of  the  school.     Work  there  was  always  honorable,  idleness 


The  Teacher.  15 

alwa3's  a  disgrace.  A  boy  who  was  known  deliberately  to 
tell  a  lie,  whether  to  a  student  or  a  teacher,  and  had  the 
stigma  of  falsehood  branded  upon  him,  could  hardly  remain 
among  the  students,  whatever  might  be  his  social  position  at 
home.  It  needed  no  formal  expulsion  to  separate  him  from 
the  school.  He  had  expelled  himself.  An  old  student  tells 
me  that  the  only  time  he  ever  saw  Dr.  Soule  angry  was  when 
he  discovered  that  a  boy  had  been  lying  to  him. 

Both  Dr.  Abbot  and  Dr.  Soule  always  looked  with  extreme 
jealousy  on  any  influence  that  might  find  its  way  into  the 
academy  through  lavish  expenditures  of  money  by  the 
students.  They  wisely  deprecated  everything  of  that  kind 
as  evil  in  itself  and  of  evil  example.  Hence  it  was,  in  no 
small  measure,  that  the  public  spirit  of  the  place  was  on  the 
side  of  truth  and  of  learning.  They  who  did  not  love  and 
cherish  them  had  no  title  to  the  associations  and  privileges 
of  the  place.  I  speak  of  the  school  as  I  knew  it  more  than 
fifty  years  ago,  and  as  I  have  known  it  from  time  to  time 
since  then,  with  its  enlarged  resources  and  its  improved 
methods  of  study. 

Dr.  Soule  retired  from  its  head  in  1873.  His  heart  was 
still  in  his  work.  Its  interests  were  dearer  to  him  than  his 
own.  When,  a  few  years  before,  the  venerable  building  in 
which  he  had  studied  as  a  boy,  and  in  which  he  had  been  so 
long  the  presiding  genius,  was  burned,  he  wept  as  he  would 
not  have  done  if  it  had  been  his  own  personal  property. 
When  he  withdrew  from  its  beloved  labors  and  cares,  he 
watched  from  his  windows  the  students  —  "my  boys,"  he 
used  to  call  them  still  —  as  they  went  to  their  recitations, 
and  turned  always  with  a  fatherly  fondness  and  yearning 
towards  them. 

Hundreds  there  are  who  honor  and  bless  his  name.  Some 
of  them,  men  of  the  highest  intelligence,  powers  for  good  on 


16  The  Teacher, 

a  large  scale  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  best  interests  of 
society,  think  of  him  as  their  greatest  benefactor, —  as  the 
man  who  first  revealed  them  to  themselves  and  taught  them 
how  to  make  themselves  what  they  are.  Hundreds  of  his 
boys  went  before  him  to  that  world  where  he  now  is,  and  I 
can  imagine  them  reverently  approaching  him,  as  Dante 
represents  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  saying,  "  Honor  to 
our  lofty  teacher  !  "  Of  all  that  multitude,  I  do  not  believe 
there  are  any  who  call  to  mind  a  single  lesson  taught  by  him 
which  it  grieves  them  now  to  remember,  even  in  that  holy 
presence. 

He  was  a  very  distinguished  teacher.  He  entered  into  what 
was  already  a  great  office,  and  left  it  greater  than  he  found 
it.  No  mercenary  motive  was  ever  mixed  up  with  its  sacred 
duties,  to  degrade  or  vitiate  his  work.  He  loved  it  with  his 
whole  heart.  He  taught  with  singular  precision  and  dis- 
crimination, and  in  such  a  way  as  to  stimulate  the  mind  and 
call  its  faculties  into  play.  He  taught  by  his  word  and  with 
his  intellect,  but,  more  effectively  and  to  a  higher  purpose, 
by  that  pervasive,  life-giving  influence  which,  like  the 
spirit  of  God,  proceeds  from  a  quickening,  beneficent,  com- 
manding personality.  In  his  access  to  the  mind  of  God 
were  the  "  hidings"  of  a  power  which  made  him  what  he  was 
and  what  no  man  can  be  of  himself  alone, —  enabling  him 
to  train  his  boys,  not  only  for  places  of  usefulness  and  trust 
and  honor  on  earth,  but  that  their  names' might  be  written 
in  the  book  of  life.  Thus  he  became  a  co-worker  with  God, 
taught  by  Him  as  a  lowly  disciple  of  Jesus,  and  dispensing 
to  others  what  he  learned. 

So  do  all  our  best  instructors  teach  what  they  have  learned 
from  God.  And  so  may  we  always  be  able  to  say  to  Him, 
"  All  thy  children  shall  be  taught  of  the  Lord ;  and  great 
shall  be  the  peace  of  thy  children." 


The  Teacher.  17 


APPENDIX. 

Through  the  kindness  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Street,  Dr.  Soule's 
pastor,  I  was  invited  to  pi'each  a  commemorative  sermon  in  the 
Second  Congregational  Church  in  Exeter,  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
8tli  of  June.  At  a  meeting  of  the  trustees  of  the  Academy  it 
was 

Voted,  That  the  Reverend  Dr.  Morisou  be  requested  to  allow  the  trus- 
tees of  Phillips  Exeter  Academy  to  publish  the  discourse  given  by  him  in 
Exeter  commemorative  of  the  late  Dr.  Soule,  and  that  he  be  asked  to 
prepare  for  it  a  biograijhical  appendix. 

I  have  not  at  hand  the  materials  for  even  a  slight  biograjihical 
sketch  of  Dr.  Soule.  He  was  born  in  Freeport,  Me.,  the  25th  of 
July,  1796.  He  entered  the  Academy  at  Exeter  in  1813, 
remained  there  three  years,  entered  as  junior  at  Bowdoin  College 
in  1816,  and  graduated  in  1818.  He  then  came  to  the  Academy 
as  assistant  teacher,  remaining  a  little  more  than  a  year.  He 
returned  again  in  1822,  was  instructor  till  1838,  when  he  was 
elected  principal,  which  office  he  resigned  in  1873,  having  been  a 
teacher  in  the  Academy  fifty-two  years,  and  at  its  head  thirty-five 
years.     He  died  May  28,  1879. 

When  I  was  admitted  to  the  Academy  in  1825,  Mr.  Soule  was 
twenty-nine  years  old.  In  his  gait  and  personal  appearance,  in 
his  bearing  towards  the  students  and  his  mode  of  teaching,  as 
well  as  in  the  tones  of  his  voice,  he  was  then  very  much  the  same 
that  he  always  was  afterwards.  There  was  nothing  like  self- 
assertion  in  his  demeanor.  He  moved  and  spoke  calmly  and 
deliberately.  I  do  not  remember  that  I  ever  saw  him  out  of 
temper.  But  there  was  something  about  him  which  gave  the 
impression,  that,  while  he  was  both  quick  and  exact  in  his  mental 
operations,  he  was  also  equally  quick  in  his  feelings,  and  that  he 
was  a  man  with  whom  it  would  not  be  safe  to  take  any  undue 
liberties.  I  never  saw  a  flash,  but  we  all  felt  that  the  lightning 
was  there,  ready  to  check  at  the  instant  any  appi'oach  to  disobe- 
dience or  disrespect. 


18  Appendix. 

Dr,  Abbot  was  then,  and  continued  for  thirteen  years  after- 
wards to  be,  at  the  head  of  the  institution.  He  had  been  asso- 
ciated with  very  able  and  accomplished  assistant  instructors, — 
men  who  as  teachers  and  in  other  walks  held  the  highest  posts  of 
usefulness  and  honor.  But  while  with  him,  they  spontaneously 
looked  up  to  him  as  their  superior,  not  only  in  official  dignity,  but 
in  the  easy  and  natural  ascendancy  which  he  maintained  in  the 
government  of  the  school.  Outside  of  that,  as  a  neighbor,  a 
citizen,  or  a  friend,  he  was  apparently  the  meekest  of  men,  diffi- 
dent, hesitating,  distrustful  of  himself.  But  no  admiral  on  the 
quarter-deck  of  his  flag-ship  was,  more  than  he  in  his  school,  the 
impersonation  of  decision,  firmness,  and  authority. 

Mr.  Soule  as  an  assistant  teacher  filled  his  post  modestly  and 
grandly.  He  knew  how  to  subdue  a  fi'actious  or  self-important 
student  without  seeming  to  come  into  collision  with  him.  Such 
an  one,  new  to  the  school,  and  full  of  the  ideas,  gained  at  home, 
of  his  own  superiority,  in  coming  up  to  recite  with  his  class  for 
the  first  time,  pressed  by  them  very  obtrusively,  and  took  the 
foremost  seat.  In  the  recitation,  Mr.  Soule  quietly  put  to  him 
questions  which  only  the  best  scholars  could  answer;  and  when  he 
had  broken  down  entirely  on  them,  they  were  passed  on  to  the 
next  students  and  answered  by  them  as  a  matter  of  course.  At 
the  recitation  on  the  following  day,  he  was  careful  to  be  behind 
his  class  and  to  take  the  lowest  place.  Years  afterwards,  he 
spoke  of  that  mortifying  experience  as  the  most  valuable  lesson 
he  had  ever  learned.  But  there  was  no  look  of  harshness  and  no 
word  of  rebuke  to  indicate  that  there  had  been  anything  out  of 
the  usual  routine  in  the  recitation.  There  was  nothing  to  irritate 
the  boy  and  thus  excite  a  needless  opposition,  and  nothing  to 
discourage  him  by  adding  gratuitously  to  the  mortification  of 
defeat. 

Under  Dr.  Soule  the  government  of  the  Academy  was  never 
obtrusive.  It  was  as  gentle  and  as  unvarying  as  a  law  of  Nature. 
Its  decrees  executed  themselves  without  noise.  Nothing  was 
said  about  government.    Young  gentlemen  were  expected  to  be  a 


Appendix.  19 

law  to  themselves.  But  unfortunately  all  boys  are  not  of  this 
sort.  And  there  were  vigilant  eyes  keenly  turned  on  every  new- 
comer, and  quick  tt)  see  when  any  dangerous  element  had  entered 
the  fold.  "That  boy,"  said  Dr.  Soule  to  me  of  a  boy  respecting 
whom  I  was  inquiring,  "had  not  been  here  a  week  before  he  had  the 
school  under  his  control;  and  not  for  its  good."  No  charge  was 
made  against  him,  but  he  was  quietly  taken  away  by  his  father. 

To  foresee  and  remove  an  evil  before  it  had  come  to  a  head 
was  always  and  wisely  the  practice  here.  A  gentle  but  far- 
seeing  and  prompt  observance  of  the  maxim,  '■'■Obsta  j^rincipiis^^'' 
resist  the  beginnings  of  evil,  has  saved  a  vast  deal  of  trouble  in 
the  management  of  the  Academy.  But  it  requires  a  remarkable 
insight  into  character,  a  rare  sense  of  justice,  and  great  prompt- 
ness of  decision,  as  well  as  kindliness  of  heart  and  manner,  to 
carry  it  out.  At  Exeter  there  have  been  unusual  facilities  in  this 
respect.  It  is  a  school  founded  for  the  advanced  education  of 
those  who,  with  talents  "  above  mediocrity,"  desire  to  learn.  It 
has,  therefore,  more  than  any  common  school,  the  power  of 
selecting  its  students.  Dr.  Abbot  and  Dr.  Soule  both  considered 
it  a  privilege  for  any  one  to  become  a  member  of  the  school. 
They  delighted  to  welcome  all  promising  boys  to  its  advantages. 
Except  perhaps  the  senior  class  in  our  colleges,  there  are  no 
persons  in  the  land  who  feel  more  the  dignity  of  their  position 
than  the  students  of  Phillips  Exeter  Academy.  And  this  sense 
of  nobility  imposes  its  obligations.  Daniel  Webster  said  that  no 
honor  ever  bestowed  on  him  produced  such  an  emotion  in  his 
mind  as  he  felt  when  his  teacher,  Mr.  Nicholas  Emery,  told  him 
that  he  was  the  best  scholar  in  his  class, —  a  class  of  three. 

Under  Dr.  Soule,  with  a  new  board  of  trustees,  the  Academy 
more  than  maintained  its  high  position  among  institutions  of  its 
kind.  The  number  of  students  was  doubled.  But  he  was  able  to 
keep  every  student  in  his  mind,  and  to  follow  him  after  he  left 
the  school.  He  had  a  remarkable  faculty  of  recognizing  those 
who  had  once  been  his  boys,  when  he  met  tlicni  even  after  a 
lapse  of  many  years.     This  personal  knowledge  and  remembrance 


V-''7(:>e>34- 


20  Appendix. 

is  of  great  value  to  a  teacher,  guiding  him  in  his  work  and  bind- 
ing him  and  his  pupils  to  one  another. 

Dr.  Soule  was  associated  in  his  office  with  vwy  able  men.  But 
he  easily  maintained  his  ascendancy  as  the  legitimate  head  of  the 
school.  For  eighteen  years  Joseph  Gibson  Hoyt  was  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Mathematics.  He  was  a  man  of  vai-ious  and  uncommon 
gifts  and  accomplishments,  and  would  have  been  eminent  in  any 
calling.  We  have  heard  those  most  competent  to  judge,  who  had 
been  his  pupils,  say  that,  in  his  department,  he  was  the  best 
teacher  they  had  ever  known.  But  he  was  not  merely  a  teacher. 
He  impressed  any  one  who  met  him  by  his  brilliant  and  striking 
qualities  as  a  man  of  mark  and  influence.  His  death  was  a 
serious  loss  to  the  cause  of  education.  He  left  Exeter  to 
become  the  Chancellor  of  Washington  University,  in  St.  Louis. 
By  him  and  by  those  who  were  not  unworthy  to  be  his  associates, 
the  superior  qualifications  of  Dr.  Soule  for  the  office  which  he 
held  were  always  recognized.  And  so  the  wise  and  good  man 
continued  at  the  head  of  the  school,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name, 
till  a  serious  attack  of  illness  admonished  him  that  he  could  no 
longer  depend  upon  himself.  Then,  at  the  mature  age  of  seventy- 
seven,  he  resigned  his  office  and  withdrew  from  the  duties  of 
oversight  and  instruction  which,  in  one  form  or  another,  had 
connected  him  with  the  Phillips  Exeter  Academy  for  more  than 
fifty-two  years. 

Dr.  Soule  was  fortunate  and  hai»])y  in  his  domestic  relations. 
His  widow  still  lives,  with  faculties  unimpaired,  in  the  sweetness 
and  serenity  of  affections  which  have  always  been  a  joy  and  com- 
fort to  those  around  her.  Two  daughters  died  almost  in  their 
infancy,  and  left  always  the  light  of  a  tender  and  holy  memory  in 
the  home  which  they  gladdened  for  a  little  while.  Three  sons 
survive, —  one  a  lawyer  in  New  York,  one  a  teacher,  formerly  in 
Cincinnati,  but  during  these  latter  years  residing  witii  his  father, 
and  one  a  judge  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts. In  the  light  of  what  he  was  about  to  do  and  to  be  and 
enjoy,  it  might  well  have  been  said  to  him  in  his  youth,  as  God 
said  to  Abraham,  "I  will  bless  thee,  and  thou  shalt  he  a  blessing." 


*^\yVvcrv*>-<3»'"''-'^  - 


Gideon  Lane  Soule,  LL.D. 


